There are many situations in which considerable quantities of blood accumulate in a human body cavity. This blood must be sucked from the patient's body cavities and collected in a container of a suitable type and later has to be reintroduced into the patient's body.
Extreme care has to be taken during a transfusion process. This includes avoiding the coagulation of the blood and reducing the dissolution of red blood cells, known as hemolysis, to a minimum.
It is known to transfer blood by a roller pump from a patient to a suitable container. A first hose connects the roller pump and the container while a second hose connected to the container is used to carry the blood back into the circulatory system of the patient. Each one of these prior art hoses measures approximately two meters. During use, blood is sucked from the body cavity during an operation and collected in the container.
Before the blood is sucked, whole system has to be filled with a salt solution which acts as an anti-coagulating medium. During reinfusion of the blood, the anti-coagulating medium is introduced into the patient's body along with the blood.
There are several disadvantages associated with this known system and procedure. (1) The roller pump and the blood reservoir are located at a stationary location far removed from the operating table. (2) The corresponding flexible tubes between the sucking end and the container is at least 82 centimeters in length. (3) Any blood is likely to coagulate while travelling along these long hoses. Therefore, large amounts of anti-coagulating additives are added to prevent the coagulation of the blood. (4) The roller pump has a tendency to injure the delicate red blood cells when passing therethrough. Consequently, the content of free hemoglobin in the plasma is increased. (5) The delicate conditions and disposition of the various parts of the known systems requires specialized persons to operate the prior art devices. (6) Because of the configuration of the prior art systems, the risk of air embolism is significant. (7) Because of the large overall size of the known system, more than one person is generally required to operate the apparatus.
The known systems also include additional tubular element connected to the flexible tubing for containing anti-coagulating medium. This additional tubular element is required to avoid blood coagulation in the long flexible hose used with the prior art system. Consequently, the known system is extremely large and bulky.